Merge Your Body And Soul

Posted on February 28, 2013 by theveilofchastity

“The more our bodies and our souls sing the same song, whose notes were written by the Creator, the better the chance that the two complementary sexes will create beautiful music.”

Dr. Alice von Hildebrand

Man and Woman ~ A Divine Invention

I know the idea that attraction is purely physical is cemented into most of our minds because of our culture’s obsession with obtaining physical perfection. But, it is a lie. In the first part of this myth buster, I discussed the problem of having our body and our souls disconnected. I touched on how important it is to have harmony between our body and our souls and how this harmony enables us to properly relate to the opposite sex.

A critical goal for all of us to achieve is to reharmonize and merge our body and our soul. Today I will present ideas for obtaining this harmony through the healing of our spiritual soul and taking care of our physical body with a balanced approach.

Balance

Remember disharmony will occur when you emphasize one aspect of yourselves more than the other. This emphasis will cause you to attract and be attracted to men who also emphasize that one aspect of you. In other words, if you emphasize and focus on your body, then the men you date will do the same. If you emphasize your soul at the expense of your body, then the men will potentially only feel a sisterly affection toward you rather than spousal love. It is important to be in balance so that you, the whole person, can love and be loved.

Only In Heaven

“The body, formed in the image of God, and the soul, which has adopted the Spirit of the Father, in harmony, make up the perfect human being.”

Saint Irenaeus (2^nd Century)

I don’t want to mislead you into thinking that you will not be able to attract your husband until you have your body and soul perfectly merged. None of us will be perfectly harmonized until we are in heaven! But this should not discourage us from making a serious effort toward this goal right now. You definitely want to be ready when you do meet your husband. So, what can you do in the meantime?

Think Long-Term

When approaching dating and marriage, you must think long-term. Remember the one that God has for you is looking for a person, not just a body. So, don’t allow yourself to focus on your body. And don’t allow a man to marry you for your physical attractiveness. This is a huge risk. I cannot tell you how many times I have witnessed this pattern: Guy falls for the attractive, sexually available girl, they have sex, they get married (or they break up), they contracept, they divorce. This is the future vacuum discussed the first part of this myth buster.

You may feel very flattered to have a guy fall all over you because of your physical appearance but you must not allow yourself to be sucked in to this type of relationship. One strategy for protecting yourself from this type of relationship is……Chastity!

Chastity

Chastity is the force that pulls the body and the soul into union and creates the fullness of the intimacy of persons so they can love and be loved.

“Seeing each other, as if through the mystery of creation, man and woman see each other even more fully and distinctly than through the sense of sight itself, that is, through the eyes of the body. They see and know each other with all the peace of the interior gaze, which creates precisely the fullness of the intimacy of persons.”

Blessed Pope John Paul II, Theology of the Body 13:1

Chastity allows you to keep your head on straight in the relationship so that you can accurately judge the quality and direction of the relationship. It allows your body and your soul to sing the same song and make beautiful music with your husband!

Take Care of Your Body

We all need to strike a balance when it comes to taking care of our bodies. Your body, no matter how flawed you think it may be, is a miraculous gift from God. We must take care of all our gifts, including our bodies. We should never feel hatred toward our body. But, we must also not go overboard and make our bodies an idol.

Exercise and eating right are important. If you happen to struggle with gluttony (most humans do), then add to your daily prayer list a fervent request to be released from that bondage. I have certainly had to add it to my prayer list! And I can say it definitely helps so use this powerful tool!

Your physical attributes can be easily enhanced by good hygiene habits. I have very simple advice for you when it comes to taking care of yourself physically: Don’t smoke (smoking wreaks havoc on your skin and your teeth!), drink lots of water and for heaven sakes use SPF, moisturize and exfoliate your skin! Seriously, that is it!

If you are already doing all these things to enhance your natural physical attributes, then start to evaluate your soul.

I finally realized that taking care of my soul was key to having a healthy relationship with my body. Once I returned to the Catholic Church and started living a prayerful and Sacramental Life, my body and my soul started to merge. The merger is still taking place today and requires constant prayer.

Take Care Of Your Soul

Your soul needs grace because grace is the only medicine that heals us and brings us into harmony. Here are our resources to the fount of grace:

Confession
Mass
Receive the Precious body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus in the Eucharist
Eucharistic Adoration
Read Holy Scripture
Read Holy Blogs and books
Only participate in holy Conversations
Protect your mind from media that further severs your body from your soul
Commit to Chastity
Pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet
Pray daily and lay your needs before the Lord
Thank the Lord for your body, your health and your fertility
Attend a Healing Mass
Consecration yourself to Jesus through Mary (Louis de Montfort’s Total Consecration to Mary)

Prescription

Take care of your body and your soul. Have a balanced approach. Seek healing from the Lord. Participate in His merging plan for you. Keep your body and soul harmonized with prayer, Chastity and a sacramental life of grace. Then, wait on the Lord.

God love and bless you!

Next Week

One surprise I hope you all will look forward to is Gregg’s input on this topic. Next week, he will provide his experience concerning this myth from a guy’s point of view. I will be doing the typing but the post will be from him. So stay tuned!

If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Thank you!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 18

Posted on February 22, 2013 by theveilofchastity

— 1 —

This week’s post: I had the privilege of guest blogging this week for the Catholic Marriage Series over at the Catholic Cookie Jar blog! The title of my guest post is “Happy Wife, Happy Husband.” Thank you to Caitlin for allowing me to participate in this wonderful series!

— 2 —

First Reconciliation: Our son will receive this wonderful Sacrament tomorrow. He was really, really nervous a couple of weeks ago about it (to the point of tears). I silently freaked out in my mind and imagined my son running out of the Church crying. I panicked and told our Pastor that I think we may have a problem.

But after attending the first Reconciliation workshop, our son feels pretty ready for it now. We have been role-playing all week and I created a Steps to Confession cheat sheet for him on card stock.

One Mom told me at the workshop that her son ‘could care less’ about receiving his 2nd Sacrament. I realized that if I had to pick between the two, being too concerned may be better than not caring at all. I will let you know how it goes!

— 3 —

My First Reconciliation: You may be wondering why in the world I freaked and panicked over our son’s fear of Confession? Well, it may have to do with my own experience a long time ago. All I remember about this Sacrament was my best friend coming out of the confessional crying and shaking (she was a shaker). That set all of us little 2nd graders off and we all started to cry. So, umm, yeah. Not a good memory.

But, really, is crying over our sins such a bad thing? Doesn’t it take humility to admit that you have done wrong? Is there any way to soften the blow to our egos? Nope. Just gotta do it. Then, once you have a relationship with our loving Father, the healing Sacrament of Confession is Awesome!

— 4 —

Dear Me: I may be way behind the Dear Me trend but I am going to share this amazing link up anyway. I will be spending way too much time this weekend reading these blog posts in which each woman has written a letter to her teenage self. Get the tissues!

— 5 —

Oscar and Reeva: I had no idea who these two were until my dear friend sent me this article. Here is what jumped out at me:

“Women in cohabiting relationships are far more likely to be abused or killed than married women — by a factor of 9, according to one study “
“Sex implied things that neither of them could mean, even if, for fleeting moments, they imagined it did.”

Even though most women are not literally dying from unchaste behavior, I think most are dying inside.

— 6 —

Worthy of Agape: Remember my bloggy friend Amanda? Well, she has a Big Announcement today! Please go check her out!

— 7 —

Pope Benedict XVI: Look at that sweet face. 🙂

Pope Benedict XVI as a boy

God love and bless you!

If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Thank you and God Bless!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary! We are praying for you and your little baby, Jennifer!

Happy Wife, Happy Husband

Posted on February 20, 2013 by theveilofchastity

I had the privilege of guest blogging this week for the Catholic Marriage Series over at the Catholic Cookie Jar blog! Thank you to Caitlin for allowing me to participate in this wonderful series. The title of my guest post is “Happy Wife, Happy Husband.”

Although most of my readers here are single, statistically, most of you will marry in the future. I pray that the insights I shared will be something that you can lock away for future reference.

I will have the “How to Merge Your Body and Soul” post ready next week and then Gregg’s insights about attraction will be ready the week after.

The topic of attraction, when presented from a Catholic point of view, has been difficult for me to capture. So I refreshed my understanding by rereading some great books this week. I read books by Dietrich von Hildebrand and Blessed Pope John Paul II. Wow, good stuff!

My main source of inspiration when writing, however, is quiet prayer. I think of myself as a 25-year-old girl and try my best, with the Lord’s leading, to provide insight which would have been helpful.

Please keep your emails coming as they are also a source of inspiration!

God love and bless you!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 17

Posted on February 15, 2013 by theveilofchastity

— 1 —

This week’s post: Is here! Attraction is a mystery. The gift of self requires the merging of our body and soul. May you be blessed!

— 2 —

Our Beloved Pope: Can you imagine the grace that will result because Pope Benedict XVI is investing his sunset season of life praying for us and offering up his suffering for us? I also look forward to the treasure trove of wisdom that is unlocked as we study his writings. It reminds me of how Humanae Vitae (Pope Paul VI) and Theology of the Body (Blessed Pope John Paul II) took years for us to grasp and appreciate. Thank you, Pope Benedict XVI. You are loved tremendously!

— 3 —

Apostolic Succession: This entry was supposed to go into my 7QTs last week. However, I think that considering the announcement by Pope Benedict XVI, the Holy Spirit may have moved me to save it for this week.

The theologian Tertullian (c.155-220) wrote a prescription against the heretics which states that in order for a church to reckon (love that word!) themselves apostolic, they must be an “offspring” of the Apostolic Church. These Churches must receive the ‘shoots of the faith and seeds of doctrine’ passed down from the Apostles who received the Holy Spirit directly from Jesus Christ.

“They set out through Judea first, bearing witness to their faith in Jesus Christ and founding churches, and then out into the world, proclaiming the same doctrine of the same faith to the nations. Again they set up churches in every city, from which the other churches afterward received the shoots of the faith and the seeds of doctrine and continue to receive them every day, in order to become churches. By this they are themselves reckoned 🙂 apostolic as being the offspring of apostolic churches… These churches, then, numerous as they are, are identical with that one primitive apostolic Church”

— 4 —

Downton Abbey~ Boo Hiss: Oh, I know that this will not be well received by all the D.A. fans but let me just share with you what happened last Friday. I had heard all about the series and thought I’d give it a try. I ordered Season One. My husband and I (and our son) really enjoy the Jane Austen A&E movies and I assumed this series would be similar. I was also excited about the era (1912) being depicted. Okay, so far so good.

So, with our child safely off to school, we cuddle up on the couch for some Downton Abbey. And, we were really enjoying it. Until. The. French. Kissing. Started…..ummmm between two dudes!!!!

Oh look, I know same-sex attraction has always been a fact. But, good Lord, do the agenda people have to stick their grubby liberal fingers in and ruin everything? I mean, it totally took me by surprise (my husband saw it coming). Thank God, our innocent child was not home. I had to cover my eyes and my poor husband had to fumble and quickly grab the remote to turn it off.

Yes, we turned it off. We were done. I threw it in the trash.

Why? Am I a prude? Maybe. But, I would like to propose that it is about trust. We can’t trust these people with their surprise attacks. We would always be on guard for the next liberal agenda plug.

Also, what happened to the art of subtlety? The plot would have been interesting if Mary was suspicious that the Duke was gay and had to grapple with what to do. It would have been fine. But, two dudes French kissing was not cool. Our eyes were made for holy things and that was Not Holy.

— 5 —

More Silliness: I have this theory. I think that premarital sex extinguishes the excitement that should be part of the wedding day. So, brides and grooms have had to up the ante to make their wedding “memorable.” This is and example of what they are doing. Lord help us and forgive us.

— 6 —

God Bless You, Celeste: Ike Ndolo is a popular Catholic musician and artist. His brother and sister-in-law, Kemi and Corinna, went into the emergency room on Monday night, February 11th, and Tuesday night on the 12th, gave birth to their 23 week old little girl, Celeste. She stayed with them for three hours before going to be with God.

Donations for the Ndolo family are being accepted here.

Isn’t she beautiful.

— 7 —

Infertility: My husband sent this to me this week knowing that I would be moved by it. It was written by Colleen Carroll Campbell.

Gregg and I have one miracle child on earth and at least two in heaven. I have not experienced judgement from those with big families and in fact I find myself with a big smile when I see big families. But, I have wondered if they think that we are contracepting or if we maybe only wanted one child. I think the following is a good reflection for us all:

“There’s a great deal that the Body of Christ can do to minister to women and men suffering from infertility. For starters, we can pay more careful attention to the way that we speak to and about childless couples and, particularly, childless women. We live in a contraceptive culture that regards children more often as burdens than as blessings, and tends to disparage or marginalize large Christian families. So those of us who move in committed Catholic circles often rebel against this mindset by going out of our way to show our pride in and appreciation for God’s gift of children. This is a good thing. But in their zeal to set themselves apart from the secular culture and its anti-child ethos, some faithful Catholics swing to the other extreme (usually unintentionally), focusing almost exclusively on how many children a woman has when gauging how serious she is about her faith. A Catholic woman with six or eight or 10 children is very likely one who has embraced Church teaching wholeheartedly; it’s true. But that woman in the back pew at Mass with no children, or only one child, may not be the contracepting, cafeteria Catholic you suspect. She and her husband may actually be buried in grief over the children they cannot conceive, clinging to the Cross for dear life as they try to survive the holidays, nosy questions from relatives and disapproving looks from fellow believers who have misjudged them. So when we think about ministering to those who are suffering the often hidden cross of infertility, the first thing we should do is remember to reserve judgment when approaching childless couples, as we may not know the full story.”

God love and bless you!

If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Thank you and God Bless!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary! We are praying for you and your little baby, Jennifer!

7 Myths Singles Must Resist: Myth #5 Attraction Is Physical

Posted on February 14, 2013 by theveilofchastity

Based on the emails I get from you, the myth that attraction is purely physical keeps many of you from having confidence in God’s plan for your vocation. I struggled with this topic over the last couple weeks because I am trying to prove something that is a mystery. Attraction is a mystery. But, I also believe it to be supernatural and not all things that are supernatural are impossible to prove. They are difficult to prove, but not impossible.

The approach I am using to bust this myth includes the profound insights from ~~Blessed~~ Saint Pope John Paul II regarding human love and sexuality. Here is a little primer on the approach and then I will tie it to my own personal experience.

You Are A Person

“The essential reason for choosing a person must be personal, not merely sexual. Life will determine the value of a choice and the value and true magnitude of love. It is put to the test most severely when the sensual and emotional reactions themselves grow weaker, and sexual values as such lose their effect. Nothing then remains except the value of the person, and the inner truth about the love of those connected comes to light. If their love is a true gift of self, so that they belong to the other, it will not only survive but grow stronger, and sink deeper roots. Whereas if it was never more than a synchronization of sensual and emotional experiences it will lose its raison d’être [reason for existence] and the person involved in it will suddenly find themselves in a vacuum.”

~~Blessed~~ Saint Pope John Paul II

In very simplistic terms, ~~Blessed~~ Saint Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body distinguishes between the “gift of self” (chaste marital sexual love) and lust (to use). Chastity is the virtue that fights against lust and allows for the gift of self. The gift of self can only be realized when we understand which “self” we are referring to. The ‘self’ is a person and that person is you. You are the gift.

You, the human person, are both body and soul and this true gift of self requires the integration of your body and your soul. The challenge is to bring these two aspects of yourself together. In addition, you must fight against the forces of darkness which are always at work to build a chasm between your body and your soul. To be holy means to be made “whole” and the integration process, through the power of grace, makes us whole.

Disharmony

As a single girl I did not understand the amount of disharmony there was between my body and my soul. I fell into the trap of emphasizing my body and allowed society (and myself) to distort and disconnect my body from my soul. My guess is that this is happening to you. We are living in a time where the body and the soul are more disconnected than in any other time in history.

But this disconnect and disharmony is nothing new. As a result of the Fall of Man, the relationship between our body and our soul is in constant tension. Because Man revolted against God, the body started to revolt against the soul. Now, the body no longer obeys the dictates of the soul. Our struggle is to find harmony and the only way to do this is through Chastity and a Sacramental life in Christ.

You may be asking, “What does this have to do with my vocation?” Dr. Alice von Hildebrand teaches that marriages are going to pieces and collapsing because, unless there is harmony between our body and our soul, it is almost impossible for us to properly relate to the opposite sex. I believe this to also be true in the dating world. The disharmony is not only leading to divorce, it is causing delayed and missed marriage vocations.

My Story

As a single girl, I struggled with common girl issues like body image. I was also in need of girl-type healing. You know, the type of healing associated with a poor understanding of our bodies. I was riddled with negative messages resulting in a negative relationship with food and a poor body image. In other words, I, as a person, was disconnected. And this led me to focus on this aspect of myself. Because I was focusing on my physical body, I was attracting guys who had the same focus. Thankfully, my commitment to Chastity kept me from being used.

I am also ashamed to admit that I was attracted to and attracting very good-looking guys. As it teaches us in Isaiah 6: What you revere, you resemble; you become what you worship. Because I focused on the physical for myself and the guys I dated, my results yielded only the physical. I experienced that vacuum in my relationships that Saint Pope John Paul II refers to above.

Once I started living a Sacramental life and committed whole heartily to Chastity, my body and my soul began to merge. It was undetectable at the time, but looking back, I can see the healing proof. Once I took the focus off of the physical and allowed the Lord to integrate my body and my soul, I was able to love and be loved as a person, body and soul. And, in God’s perfect timing, I met Gregg.

I am not saying that I was merged completely when I met Gregg. In fact, with God’s grace, I am still being merged. But, the process needed to at least start so that I could be loved as a whole person and learn how to love a whole person.

What You Can Do

What I have presented so far is pretty deep stuff so I will stop here. Next week I will tie all this together with Chastity, Superabundance, The Veil and specific advice to help merge your body and soul (posted 2/28/13). In two weeks Gregg will share his perspective on attraction from a guy’s point of view!

In the meantime, please go back and read the above profound and beautiful words by ~~Blessed~~ Saint Pope John Paul II again. Have you experienced this vacuum in your relationships? Are you allowing too much focus on your body and is this keeping you in bondage? Think about what you are focusing on. What do you revere? You remain in my prayers.

God love and bless you!

If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Thank you!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 16

Posted on February 8, 2013 by theveilofchastity

— 1 —

Not Quite Ready: This week’s post is here. So sorry that the real post remains in draft form. Such an important topic! Please stay tuned!

— 2 —

Not Ready fo Lent: Anyone else not ready? Colleen over at Martin Family Moments blog starts out this post with:

“Raise your hand if you feel tired, run down, drained, depleted both physically and emotionally.”

I know the Lord wants to refresh me because I feel all those things right now. He is the Source of our refreshment. What I need to figure out is my part. Speak Lord, I am listening.

Colleen ends with this:

“I usually view Lent as a time to give up what I like or what makes me happy. But I think this year, I’m feeling a stronger urge to pause, take an honest assessment of life at the moment, and find a weak spot or two that could use some tweaking. This will require discipline, sacrifice, facing and beating temptations, and growing closer to Our Lord. Sounds like a fruitful Lent. And by fruitful, I mean hard :)”

— 3 —

Spousal Grief: A couple of months ago I dedicated my 7QTs to a woman named Barbara Curtis. Barbara died suddenly leaving behind her husband, 12 children and many grandchildren. She ran a blog called mommylife.com. Since her death, her husband Tripp has taken over the blog. His posts are both beautiful, poignant and heart wrenching.

As I read his post on Thursday, it reminded me of a Natalie Merchant song, My Beloved Wife. I remember being single and wondering if I would ever be married and if I did get married, would my husband feel the way the man in the song feels about his wife. The experience described in the song seemed like the epitome of how spousal love is supposed to be. That two become one flesh concept must be excruciating as the one pulls away in death.

Tripp’s feelings about losing Barbara are exactly what one would expect given the reality of the Sacramental bond. And, thanks be to God for the possibility of this bond and of such feelings.

“…you were the love
for certain of my life
for 50 years simply my beloved wife
with another love I’ll never lie again…”

— 4 —

One Love: Yesterday we were driving home as a family and I was serenaded by my husband and our son. They were singing One Love by The Thirsting off the album, Universal Youth. I am blessed and thankful that our son received my husband’s musical talent.

— 5 —

Contraception Correlations: Elizabeth from That Married Couple blog posted a fantastic article that shows the correlation between contraception, divorce and abortion. A good read. Check it out. Great job, Elizabeth!

— 6 —

Wow, Ouch Hebrews!: I never noticed that the Letter to the Hebrews is so convicting! It is like you are reading along in your bible thinking, “God is love, I love God, la la la,” and then “bam!” you get scripture that makes you rethink your efforts in your journey toward holiness. For example:

“In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood. You have also forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons: “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord or lose heart when reproved by him; for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he acknowledges. Endure your trials as “discipline”; God treats you as sons. For what “son” is there whom his father does not discipline? At the time, all discipline seems a cause not for joy but for pain, yet later it brings the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who are trained by it. So strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees…..”

— 7 —

Come And See Bible Study: A few weeks back I shared with you that I had ordered a couple of the books from this bible study series. Oh my goodness, it is such an awesome study! I started with Moses and the Torah. Even the gorgeous cover makes me smile. I am always sharing my findings with my family, starting out sentences with, “Did you know…?” I highly recommend this bible study series!

God love and bless you!

If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Thank you and God Bless!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!

Not Quite Ready

Posted on February 7, 2013 by theveilofchastity

Dear Sweet Chastity Girls,

I am so sorry but I am not quite ready with this week’s post. I have it in draft form but was not able to dedicate time this week to get it to the point where I felt it was publishable.

Lots of stress at work with the impending fiscal cliff left me feeling drained by the time we get home. And, I have been feeling the need to attend to my home life a little more this week because my family needed some extra love and attention. I have just not been able to wrap my head around completing this week’s topic to the point where I am satisfied.

Speaking of this week’s topic, it was supposed to be Myth #5 Attraction Is Physical. Based on your letters to me, this myth is one that is badly in need of busting! Because I struggled with this concept so much as a single girl, I want to put my heart into the final post…. which will be posted next week.

Thank you so very much for your understanding! You all remain in my prayers. God love and bless you!

7 Quick Takes Friday ~ Vol 15

Posted on February 1, 2013 by theveilofchastity

— 1 —

Book Review: Please check out this week’s post. I shared my final thoughts, Part 3, on the book Would You Date You?

Take aways: God’s timing trumps all of our self-knowledge and self-improvement plans, be not afraid and holiness is our calling!

May you be blessed!

— 2 —

Twitter: I was home during last Friday’s March For Life re-tweetin’ away on Twitter. I don’t normally tweet too much but I felt compelled to in response to all the good stuff going on at #marchforlife. I re-tweeted so much that I got the message saying that I had used up all my tweets for the day and to try again tomorrow! It was cool to watch #marchforlife trend to the top. Thank you to all the Marchers!

— 3 —

New Evangelist Monthly: Tomorrow, February 2^nd is the first Saturday of the month so it is time for the New Evangelist Monthly round up. Check out this “informal, dynamic, crowd-sourced “meta-magazine” showcasing the best posts faithful Catholic bloggers publish each month. Here you will find many different, but faithfully Catholic viewpoints, insights and perspectives.”

— 4 —

Pope Benedict XVI: Speaking of the new evangelists and faithful Catholic bloggers, I heard that our Holy Father referred to the last 40 years as being not just ‘failed’ catechesis but a “catastrophic collapse in catechetics.” Wow. We, the baptized Catholics, have been officially called on the carpet. Let us:

“‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” Mark 16:15

— 5 —

The Veil, His Flesh: I am so amazed when I see “the veil” mentioned in scripture. In the Letter to the Hebrews 10:19-22, it says:

“Therefore, brothers, since through the blood of Jesus we have confidence of entrance into the sanctuary by the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh, and since we have “a great priest over the house of God,” let us approach with a sincere heart and in absolute trust, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water.”

— 6 —

A Man’s Point of View: I found a quote by Fletcher Doyle on the L.I.F.T. (Living in Faith Together) blog. L.I.F.T is a Young Adult Ministry serving those 18-39 year old Catholics in all stages of life; married or single, with or without children. Fletcher Doyle is the author of Natural Family Planning Blessed Our Marriage, (Servant Books). He and his wife are converts who embraced NFP two years after their conversion. Here is what he had to say about marital chastity:

“…I found that the chastity required to get through the periods of abstinence caused profound changes in me. I stopped daydreaming of swimsuit models, wealth and fame. I became grateful for all God had given me, most of all for my wife. My appreciation for her and all that she gives me grew, improving an already good 20 year marriage….”

— 7 —

Be The Wire: Blessed Teresa of Calcutta (1910-1997), founder of the Missionary Sisters of Charity said:

“Each one of us is merely a small instrument. When you look at the inner workings of electrical things, often you see small and big wires, new and old, cheap and expensive lined up. Until the current passes through them there will be no light. That wire is you and me. The current is God. We have the power to let the current pass through us, use us, produce the light of the world. Or we can refuse to be used and allow darkness to spread.”

God love and bless you!

If you have enjoyed my blog, please “like” my Facebook Page, The Veil and sign up to receive my blog posts automatically by clicking the rectangular “Follow” button. Thank you and God Bless!

For more Quick Takes, visit Conversion Diary!